Aragami was an indie PC title made by Lince Works, released back in 2016. If you wish to read the PC review you can do so here. The game has now been released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, under the moniker: Aragami: Shadow Edition. It takes notes from other more well-known games like Dishonored with the supernatural elements and Splinter Cell games with the stealthy stalking of your enemies and killing them. With the Dishonored series being dead in the water because of the lacking sales of the second instalment, Aragami: Shadow Edition is the way forward for fans of ninja murder-making.

Story

Aragami is a vengeful spirit. He’s summoned from beyond the veil to aid a princess in her escape from an evil cult. She needs certain artefacts to be released. The keys being out of her reach, she needs an outsider to take care of the gathering and the freeing part. The Kaiho are the main villains and they stand for everything light, so a great nemesis to one that is borne from shadows. As the story progresses, you’ll learn more about the nature of Aragami and the princess. This is done through hand drawn animations and though they are slightly more ‘light’ than the overall tone of the game, it underlines the duality between the princess’ humanity and the darkness that is Aragami. At first you won’t know anything at all about the characters, but as the game progresses, they get more fleshed out and this is what makes the characters have more dimension.

Graphics

Cel shading is a visual style that’s been around for years, the first game in which it was used was XIII. In the right settings it can create more tension and contrast than a more photo-realistic aesthetic could accomplish and Aragami: Shadow Edition is such a game. The wide eyed princess really pops from the screen. It’s a bit of a shame that the game doesn’t do fully animated hand drawn cut scenes. These would definitely set the tone of the game even more.

Whenever you are sneaking and get spotted a marker will show in which direction you are exposed from. So you’ll know when to duck away into the shadows to avoid conflict and possible death at the hands of an arc of light.

Whenever you use the ability to leap from shadow to shadow, you can also clearly see your range, this is mighty helpful when luring out an enemy and striking them down sneakily.

Sound

When it comes to the music, Aragami: Shadow Edition is smooth as butter. Sneaking around works like a charm with a soft tune in the background, and luring enemies with the bell also works wonders. It’s when enemies spot dead allies or otherwise become alerted to your presence that the music picks up and goes from a soft tune to a bombastic beat that tells you to make yourself scarce if you wish to stalk the shadows another night. That’s what builds the tension in this game, sometimes you’ll hear the enemy before you see them and you’ll have to use your better judgment when to strike, or if to strike at all, because the last thing you want is to hear that dreadful horn and have every member of the opposition searching for you.

Gameplay

Aragami: Shadow Edition is a stealth based, action adventure game. It was first released on PC, but has now joined up with Xbox One and PlayStation 4, so the console owners could have some fun too. The game starts up easy enough, the first two levels or so teach you the basics, from stalking your prey to killing in silence, then they add the bell and you can lure enemies your way, or away from objectives. That would make for an already solid basis for gameplay. It doesn’t stop there however, as you play, you’ll encounter scrolls. These can be used to upgrade the skills of Aragami and help you either traverse the maps more easily, see where enemies are through the terrain, or teach you skills for creative killing. Like a skill that lets you kill enemies if you teleport to them from below. Or a way to create shadows so you can jump to a specific place that isn’t in the shadows. Be mindful of direct light as this drains your powers and will leave you helpless and vulnerable. Enemies will have an easy way of spotting you and you won’t be able to use your powers. So staying in the darkness is the way to go as this will replenish your shadow powers.

Levels are usually quite straight forward, but as the game progresses, become more maze like. This ups the difficulty, but also creates more opportunities for the more creative and stealthy takedowns.

As you complete levels you’ll get medals. There are three kinds of medals to be earned. Never be seen, killing all the enemies, or not killing anyone. Upon getting a certain amount of these medals, costumes will be distributed and you can change the attire of your Aragami. This is purely cosmetic and though there’s nothing wrong with it, having a certain outfit have a certain power up would make sense seeing as you’ll actively have to attain these medals by not killing, being unseen or killing everyone in a level, so you probably won’t unlock all of them by just playing the game in an everyday fashion.

Conclusion

Dishonored quite clearly was the interest of the developers as Aragami: Shadow Edition plays like those games, but isn’t set in a steampunk setting. It’s a different tale with quite a lot of replay value if you want to get every medal. With a redub from: Twin Souls: The Path of Shadows to Aragami: Shadow Edition, the title sets the mood for the game a lot better. Lince Works have created something special and this game might be the stepping stone to other works from them being published. Let’s just hope that they don’t get bought up by EA or it’s lights out for their creativity.

First game ever was Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped, ever since then, gaming has been something that I've gravitated to. Reading's fun but not as interactive. Always up for a bout of online multiplayer. If that multiplayer is co-op. So if you are up for a friendly co-op session, hit me up. Rahenik's the name to search on PSN.